Smartest and shabbiest stations

[kevconnor]

Ardwick also looks pretty poor but might get spruced up if there are more stoppers there when the Network Rail ROC opens.

I thought this was being constructed next to Ashbury's?

 

[Howardh]

Not sure if I'd call it the shabbiest, but Bolton's has to be the most disappointing. All that space...and virtually nothing. It needs a pub/cafe and shops that stay open until the last train and some decent waiting rooms that are a pleasure to be in (instead of the current wind tunnel on P3).

Rather like a station which I always love to change trains at....Preston.

Oxenholme would top the list if only the pub up the road was a touch nearer, like at the bottom of the car park!!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Etchingham on the Hastings line has some olde-world charm about it, only tempered by the fact that it seems to get broken into and burgled every other week!

 

[BurtonM]

The information board on platform 3 at Stalybridge has been broken pretty much since the station was done up a year ago. The one on P1 didn't work for a while, but that got fixed.

P1 is usually only timetabled for TPE services.
P3 is usually only timetabled for Northern services.

TPE manage the station...

 

[59CosG95]

Smart: London Waterloo, London St Pancras, all Heathrow stations, and borderline Leeds.
Shabby: Southampton Central, London Bridge, West Croydon, East Dulwich, Wakefield Kirkgate and Wimbledon is really starting to annoy me.

*commences SWT rant* Agreed as far as Wimbledon is concerned. It is in need of a MAJOR revamp-but that'll probably wait until CR2. Surbiton disappointed me as well-glass panes are missing from the ceiling on the stairs to Platforms 3 and 4! Art Deco my foot. All the terminals (apart from Fencrush St, Victoria's "blighted" Brighton side, and Euston as a whole) in London look impressively grand and imposing-none more so than St Pancras and Paddington. Farnham has a sort of charm to it, but Tisbury really evokes a sense of Olde England in my opinion. Woking and Guildford are just soulless commuter sponges. *ends SWT rant*

 

[Francis]

Had a ride from Waterloo to Exeter last week via the LSW and back via Honiton, Yeovil Pen Mill and Castle Cary to Paddington. I was surprised how tatty Exeter Central looked - badly in need of a coat of paint over the awnings, and the boarded up signalbox at the west end, north side. Unexpectedly shabby for Devon's elegant county town and cathedral city. Maybe it looks better if you are alighting/boarding there, but for the passenger passing through it looks a bit of a dump. Exeter St David's in contrast looks reasonably smart, if externally it is drowned by a massive car park.

 

[Yew]

I think the newly refurbished nottingham will be nice, though its a shame it doesnt have a proper train shed, just covered platforms. (As an aside, did nottingham victoria have a train shed?)

 

[Parallel]

Port Talbot Parkway is probably the shabbiest station I've ever been to. The access to the island platforms are not easy and you have to walk down some long, dark and smelly corridors. The waiting rooms are also completely unloved. It really needs some work doing to it, it is in a very sorry state!

For the smartest one - Birmingham Moor Street is very nice!

 

[davetheguard]

Smartest in no particular order: Birmingham Moor Street; Manchester Piccadilly; Sheffield; York; Swansea; Doncaster; Newcastle Central; Brighton.

Shabbiest: Stafford; Crewe; Wigan North Western; Newport (Gwent); Port Talbot Parkway.

I would have included Worcester Foregate Street, but I believe a lot of work is being done to improve it.

And Leeds. Leeds just needs a good CLEAN.

On a positive note though, I think the list of smart stations is getting longer, and the list of shabby ones shorter. And overall, the standard here is better than anywhere I've been in mainland Europe, with the possible exception of Germany, which has some magnificent main line stations with superb facilities.

 

[Bluejuice]

Plymouth Station never has a good smell to it really

 

[ValleyLines142]

In terms of smartest stations: Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds come into it, both a modern feel with plenty of shops

I agree with Shrewsbury being shabby, and Cardiff Central isn't on the best side either if I'm honest.

And as for Newport, well that's just a vile heap of metal that looks inspired from LSD-induced trip to Ikea.

 

[Paul Duck]

Shabbiest, Eaglescliffe anybody. We been crying out for work to commence on the waiting room and extended car park for two years now! Also not to fussed on 'New' Birmingham new street, the grey don't look good.
Smartest has to be St Pancras and Kings Cross.

 

[bigbadhenry]

"Llandudno when I was last there seemed shabby and unloved with its disused lines cut back roof. Has this changed much"


Llandudno has just had a refurb.
Looks a lot better.

 

[SN319]

IMO Rugby looks quite shabby. Looks in need of a refurbishment.

 

[stuartbaggs]

Canterbury West is a nice station.

 

[yorksrob]

(As an aside, did nottingham victoria have a train shed?)

Yes - a splendid one:

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/n/nottingham_victoria/index.shtml

All of Southern's coastway stations are looking very smart at the moment (with the exception of Hastings, which suffers from not having it's magnificent Southern Railway booking hall).

 

[318259]

Glasgow Central high level is really nice, especially now platform 11A has gone!

Glasgow Charing Cross, not so much. Since this picture was taken, they've taken down the yellow wall panels/benches. Now there are plain, white plasterboard walls and no seating! They've also replaced the dim orange lights with even dimmer white lights.

 

[PHILIPE]

Quite a few have Mentioned Shrewsbury as a shabby station. It has recently undergone a revamp but I haven't been there yet to see what exactly has been done.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Peartree in Derby. Its a nasty looking station in a nasty looking area. It needs to close!

 

[GatwickDepress]

Yes - a splendid one:

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/n/nottingham_victoria/index.shtml

All of Southern's coastway stations are looking very smart at the moment (with the exception of Hastings, which suffers from not having it's magnificent Southern Railway hall).

Hastings' neo-Georgian building would've been architecturally superb had it been properly maintained throughout the years, like Margate's wonderful building, but as a regular user throughout my childhood, it was dank and horrible.

The current building does lack the Southern Railway grandeur, but it's very much a new station for a new era that performs it's job wonderfully; it's airy, comfortable, easy to navigate, and walking across the footbridge doesn't feel like a scene from Indiana Jones!

The redevelopment of the bus stands and car park, which required part of the old station's footprint, is also much a hell of a lot better than before.

As much as I would've liked the old station to stay, I think Hastings is a case where nostalgia would've been blind. The current station does have a certain aesthetic to it which I really quite like!

EDIT: Gosh, I sounded like a self-righteous little peak (sp) there. Sorry yorksrob!

 

[SeanG]

Newcastle is starting to look nice, and I think certainly will be when the work is complete

 

[Gathursty]

Peartree in Derby. Its a nasty looking station in a nasty looking area. It needs to close!

I was there in the week following the conclusion of the trial of Mick Philpott. The house is or was a short walk away. I didn't think the area was so bad but let's hope Mick Philpott is a rare extreme of the characters lurking around there.

 

[plastictaffy]

Paid a visit to Brighton for a day trip the other day - thought that was a very neat and tidy station.

 

[RichmondCommu]

I was there in the week following the conclusion of the trial of Mick Philpott. The house is or was a short walk away. I didn't think the area was so bad but let's hope Mick Philpott is a rare extreme of the characters lurking around there.

Yes as you say Victory Road is not too far from Peartree. In fact Victory Road itself isn't too bad, mainly because it’s a busy road leading to one of the Rolls Royce plants.

However, the fact that Peartree requires a code to enter the platforms says a lot about the area. Whilst setting fire to residential properties is not a regular occurrence, muggings and physical assault are. Not to mention the fact that the area is home to some of the East Midlands nastiest criminal gangs. I wouldn't walk around the area after dark and I spent the first 18 years of my life living in Derby!

 

[starrymarkb]

There is also a massive billboard for some sort of fifty shades of grey thing at Longton, that can't be a sign of a good station.

Or indeed a good smut shop. £11 for a "50 Shades" tie!

FGW did smarten up Exeter central a lot when they took over (2006), but they were not allowed to go above a certain point (and everything above that dates from the 1994 Regional Railways refurb)

 

[theageofthetra]

Didn't know the old building had gone at Hastings. Does anyone remember the old train pictures that used to be on the walls?

 

[yorksrob]

Hastings' neo-Georgian building would've been architecturally superb had it been properly maintained throughout the years, like Margate's wonderful building, but as a regular user throughout my childhood, it was dank and horrible.

The current building does lack the Southern Railway grandeur, but it's very much a new station for a new era that performs it's job wonderfully; it's airy, comfortable, easy to navigate, and walking across the footbridge doesn't feel like a scene from Indiana Jones!

The redevelopment of the bus stands and car park, which required part of the old station's footprint, is also much a hell of a lot better than before.

Nah, needed to be repaired and maintained.

That's all.

Not rocket science - after all, as you mentioned, they managed it at Ramsgate and Margate.

Bus stands and car park, these could have easily been accommodated in some other configuration.

Sorry. The destruction of the Southern Railway booking hall was an act of vandalism that I cannot condone.

It sickens me every time I travel through Hastings.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I'll just leave these here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_of_hastings/4595452480
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_of_hastings/4595452486

I'm not into art or architecture or any of that carry on, but Art Deco is pretty cool

They best not lay a finger on my beloved Bishopstone.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I'll just leave these here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_of_hastings/4595452480
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sam_of_hastings/4595452486

I'm not into art or architecture or any of that carry on, but Art Deco is pretty cool

They best not lay a finger on my beloved Bishopstone.

Speaking of Art-Deco stations, Surbiton is magnificent (or at least it was 11 or so years ago when I used it regularly).

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Speaking of Art-Deco stations, Surbiton is magnificent (or at least it was 11 or so years ago when I used it regularly).

It is indeed. Still standing and hopefully will be for a very long time as it's (rightfully) Grade II listed.